Emerging fashion designer Esteban Osuna will be on the red carpet of the Tony Awards.
Well, at least one of his unique gowns will be.
Osuna’s creation will be worn at the premier awards show for Broadway theatre after being referred to Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, a voting member of the awards and executive director of ASU Gammage at Arizona State University.
The Tucsonan has been making a name for himself through hard work creating his own eveningwear designs over the past six years.
But before this opportunity was presented to him, Osuna was on an entirely different path. From an early age he was interested in creating art and saw it daily through his father’s work as a boot cobbler.
As he watched his father work his interest in creative design grew.
Osuna caught a “big break” in high school, after continuously submitting his work in various art challenges. The Art Institute of Tucson offered him a scholarship.
He thought it would be a next step following his dad, who also has a background as an architect. He thought it would be a way for Osuna to learn how to design spaces for people to live or work in.
“Just like any art school, they have portfolios before they take you in, submit you to the school and enroll you,” he said. “So, it turns out I went to the interior design department, I showed them my books, my sketches and it took a weird turn at that moment.”
The director of fashion put Osuna on a different path, a path that would lead him to today.
He said his first thought was, “Wow, I can barely afford my clothes and you want me to make clothes for other people? I don’t even know how to sew.”
Somehow the words of the director telling him to stick with the program kept Osuna at the school.
Those days in the beginning were no fun for him.
“I tried it and I was miserable, I did not like to sew, I hated it and then I’m like, ‘wow there goes another $5,000 down the drain’, ” he said. “Almost at this point I became a little hopeless about it because I didn’t know much about design.”
Osuna’s interest in fashion design would finally grow in a class where his creative side would be displayed.
In his Surface Design class, he could manipulate the fabrics, dyeing, beading, adding texture, changing the original material into something entirely different.
He received his bachelor’s degree in fashion design in 2014. Since then, his work has been seen in various publications, including Avant Garde magazine.
The 29-year-old’s collections would also appear at Tucson Fashion Week. He said his last collection at the event led to the opportunity to make the gown for Jennings-Roggensack.
“Wow, I can barely afford my clothes and you want me to make clothes for other people?
I don’t even know how to sew.” Esteban Osuna, on his first thoughts when he was told he should try fashion design
